For homework: nanotechnology

By eSchool News

July 22nd, 2008

About three dozen teachers were at the headquarters of New York State United Teachers on July 21 learning how computer chips work, with the goal of passing this knowledge on to their students, reports the Albany Times Union. The teachers, from local school districts such as Albany, Shenendehowa, East Greenbush, and Saratoga Springs, were doing tests with transistors and resistors and light-emitting diodes on a circuit board. Granted, the transistors they were testing are gigantic compared to the transistors on today’s current computer chips, which aren’t visible to the naked eye. But they got one step closer to understanding computer chips and nanotechnology, which are increasingly becoming a part of the local economy. "The nanotechnolgy and the use of it is cutting-edge, and it’s here," said Ken Strube, a math teacher at Shenendehowa High School in Clifton Park. The four-day event for about 60 local teachers was organized by the SEMI Foundation, the educational arm of SEMI, the computer chip industry’s California-based trade group. Lisa Anderson, a vice president with SEMI Foundation, said the group has organized 70 of its High-Tech U programs for 3,000 students and 400 teachers across the globe since 2001. "If [teachers] don’t understand what’s going on in the industry and the economic opportunities, then they don’t have the tools to be effective in the classroom," she said…